An ongoing need in the woodworking industry is to drill pilot holes before driving screws into materials. This has been traditionally accomplished by the use of two separate tools, namely a drill for drilling the pilot holes, and a screwdriver (which may be a hand tool, a powered tool, or another drill) for driving the screws. Use of two tools, requires repeatedly laying down the first tool and picking up the second tool. Under many circumstances, such as working from ladders, this can be very awkward. Recently, adapters have been developed that allow a double ended bit, for example a drill bit and a screw driver bit to be releasably held in an adapter held in the chuck. While this a eliminated the need for switching between two tools, there is still the need to release, remove, turn, and reinsert the dual ended bit. Not only is this time consuming, but the user may drop the dual ended bit. Further, the adapter increases the overall distance from the chuck to the tip of the bit, which can be awkward in tight spaces.
The above discussion is equally applicable for the case where large diameter holes are drilled, wherein a pilot hole is drilled for a larger drill.
Therefore, there is still is a need for a means for drilling and driving screws with a single tool.